Katie Zacharia Is What Happens When Loyalty Replaces Competence

Katie Zacharia lasted five days as White House press secretary. In that short time, she turned one of the most visible jobs in American government into a circus-like spectacle (in her defense, the circus did not start with her), provoking criticism from within President Donald Trump’s own political movement and ultimately losing the confidence of the man who appointed her.

Saying she was unprepared for the job is obvious. Perhaps we should instead focus on why she was given the job in the first place.

The White House press secretary is not an entry-level position. It requires an intimate understanding of government, a sophisticated command of policy and the ability to withstand questioning from journalists whose professional obligation is to expose precisely what your boss would prefer to remain concealed.

These are skills acquired through experience and preparation, not resume points that can be improvised at a podium.

Yet Zacharia’s appointment, an improvisation in itself to some, seemed to reflect a different set of priorities that have become increasingly familiar in Trump’s political universe: personal loyalty and ideological compatibility.

Competence, apparently, was something to be determined later. And so here we are, face-to-face with the shortest-serving press secretary in White House history.

There is a certain irony in watching an administration that has spent years denouncing the supposed incompetence of America’s political establishment discover, almost immediately, that running the government requires people who know what they are doing.

Trump’s political appeal has always depended partly on his contempt for conventional qualifications, a tendency that worked out well in some cases and not in others (Matt Gaetz). He presents himself as the man who can see through impressive resumes and institutional pedigrees that supposedly conceal mediocrity, but skepticism toward credentials is not the same as indifference to ability.

Indeed, the great promise of Trump’s revolt against the establishment was that he would replace its complacent insiders with exceptional outsiders: people whose accomplishments mattered more than their connections and whose effectiveness would vindicate his unconventional choices.

Zacharia’s brief tenure suggests how easily that promise can deteriorate into its opposite.